'Spirit of giving' aim of new Foundation chairman

Kevin O'Connor, the office managing partner of Baker Tilly in Leeds, has become the new chairman of Leeds Community Foundation.

Since its launch in 2005, the Leeds Community Foundation has

distributed more than 9m to local groups. Last year (2008-'09) it made grants of approximately 3.8m to over 300 groups across the city.

Mr O'Connor takes over from John Ansbro who has been chairman of the board of trustees since the beginning.

Mr Ansbro has seen it grow to become the third largest grant-maker of all the 57 community foundations in Britain.

Mr O'Connor said: "The Leeds Community Foundation does fantastic work with a very small team acting as both a philanthropy adviser to individuals and businesses who want to give something back to Leeds and as a grant-making body to hundreds of community organisations across the city.

"Support is growing all the time but I want to see a city- wide 'spirit of giving' develop to help narrow the gap for the benefit of the more deprived parts of Leeds. There is a huge need to tackle some deep-seated social problems and some wonderful people working to tackle them."

Sally-Anne Greenfield, the chief executive of Leeds Community Foundation, said: "We are delighted to have someone of Kevin's' experience and standing as chairman. It reflects the importance that business attaches to supporting its local community. I would also like to thank John Ansbro for the huge amount of support and guidance he has given us over the last five years."

Kevin O'Connor has been office managing partner of Baker Tilly in Leeds since 2002. He was chairman of Financial Leeds (formerly LFSI) from 2007-2009 and has been a trustee of Leeds Community Foundation since 2008.